It’s a question that I doubt seriously that many of us ever ask ourselves. And yet, the answer to the question is central to who we are as a people!
It is uncommon for me to write in the first person, but today we’ll violate our aversion to this, because I’ll speak for myself, and allow others to decide based on my offering how to compare and contrast their own practice.
I have a quite beautiful gold cross—small, on a short gold chain. I wear it about my neck and against my skin 24/7. It is on me when I bathe, when I sleep, when I wake, when I drive, when I walk. The only time I’ve taken it off is when required to do so for medical testing. No one (except for me) sees this cross. It is there to remind me that I have been purchased at great price by my Master, who loves me. It is for me alone. Showing it to others has no purpose, since I am called by my Master to reflect His love to all who I encounter. They are to see Him when they see me. When I am conformed to His will properly, seeing His cross adds very little to an image of the One they should see when they look at me.
On other days, when I am doing my clerical duties as a priest, I DO wear a visible cross. It serves several purposes. It does make a statement to those who will notice it that I am a priest, one who is called to be a servant of the Lord. It can be used as a “blessing Cross” similar to the one that lay upon our Altar to give a blessing to those who approach in faith looking for a blessing. It is a message to the one wearing it that the first thing he needs to show to those seeing him is humility. It is NOT an ‘emblem’ saying to others, “Look up to me!” God forbid!
In the Bulgarian Patriarchate (and in many other Orthodox jurisdictions—but not all), the cross is given to a man at his ordination to the Holy Priesthood for these purposes. Such a priest is called by his office to present himself at all times publicly in cassock wearing the cross. An Orthodox priest must get a blessing from his bishop to be seen in public NOT wearing “clerics” as described. I have such a blessing from His Eminence to dress in secular clothes for my secular job.
If I’m out in public and I am wearing clerics, often the things said to me by people are surprising. The most repeated one? “Are you some kind of priest?” Less often people will smile and simply offer, “Hello, father.” Too often, the response is, “I like your cross.” To such people, it isn’t a symbol of our Lord and His call to be a servant, it’s a piece of jewelry.
So you have been given a number of reasons why your priest wears a cross. But let’s return to the original question—Why do YOU wear a cross? Why SHOULD you wear a cross?
It’s this later question that’s most important. First, we should wear a cross to remind us of our Lord’s commandment to His followers, “you must deny yourself and take up your cross and follow Me.” Second, if I am following, I must be reminded to always look for the One Who is leading, and not to stray from Him.
But least of all, I should NOT wear a cross as a ‘show piece’, an ornament.
There’s a story of a nun who was taken prisoner (I forget if in WWII or in Soviet Russia—the time/place is unimportant) and was stripped of everything that could remind her of her former life in Christ. That included the cross she wore from her youth until then. When she was permitted time to walk outdoors, she picked some longer blades of grass. Alone in her captivity, she wove those blades of grass into the shape of a cross, which she clandestinely kept in her pocket. So as she would walk, her hand held what was precious to her—her grass cross. When she was alone, she would take if from her pocket and venerate it.
I submit to you that God’s creation was never more beautifully used by mankind than it was in those simple blades of His grass which connected her with Him in loving prayer, sustaining her through her captivity.
May the crosses we bear upon ourselves, regardless of what they are made of, be that precious to our daily existence.
